Port Potager

Here's hoping that this is the last of the snow posts. The blizzard has been fun and all, but now we need some slow-but-steady melting to stay on track with our spring planting plan . Yesterday was a gorgeous, sunny, and warm (for February) day, so it was the perfect opportunity for the kids to play in the snow and help Kirk tunnel into some of the greenhouse tunnels to get at our carrots and leeks: The carrot section closest to the house had the worst of the drifting, and was completely covered. Four-foot-tall Jonas gives a sense of what we were up against in getting them uncovered. Carrot access complete! Of course the ground is frozen solid and we have no real leverage for digging, but at least it's a start. Kirk also managed to get to the leeks. This greenhouse tunnel wasn't completely covered, but it took some work to dig back the snow and roll away the partially buried plastic. Kirk dug up all but the last half dozen leeks and brought them ins...

A full day after the snow stopped falling, and we are all dug out. Here's the aerial view of the garden under 2-3 feet of snow. Click here to compare to what it looked like a week ago, before the snow fell. The swingset quadrant. The patio quadrant. The driveway quadrant. The workshop quadrant.

It's hard to tell how much snow we got here in Newburyport. I heard 19 inches on the news, but in most spots on our property it was between 24-30 inches. There was a lot of drifting — up to 5 feet in some parts of the garden. We live on a snow emergency route, and our road was plowed early this afternoon. We were able to get out and do the bulk of our snow blowing and shoveling today, though we'll have to tackle raking a few roofs tomorrow. Here are some photographic highlights: The garden at 11 a.m. on Friday, February 8.  The garden at 8 a.m. on Saturday, February 9. It's still snowing and blowing in this photo, and if you look carefully, you can see Fletch in front of the chicken coop. As soon as he heard Kirk heading out to shovel a path to the workshop, he came bounding through two feet of snow for his breakfast. By the time I snapped this photo, he had given up and was skirting the chicken coop, where the snow wasn't up to his ears. Kirk grabbed ...